List of Greek Jews Who Received Spanish Citizenship

BACKGROUND

After the expulsion, a period of more than four centuries of mutual ignorance ensued in Spain, although there was no shortage of initiatives and opportunities for reunion. In the early years of the 20th century, Senator Ángel Pulido launched a major campaign to inform Spaniards about the existence of the Sephardim, attempting to obtain Spanish nationality for them, although very few obtained it. Later, Primo de Rivera's Decree of December 20, 1924, allowed some Sephardim to obtain Spanish nationality. In its Statement of Reasons, it refers to "former Spanish protected persons or their descendants, and in general individuals belonging to families of Spanish origin who have at some point been registered in Spanish registries, and these Hispanic elements, with deep-rooted feelings of love for Spain, through ignorance of the law and for other reasons beyond their control to be Spanish, have not managed to obtain our nationality." Thus, a naturalization process was opened that allowed Sephardim to obtain Spanish nationality within a period that lasted until 1930. The Royal Decree of December 20, 1924, had an unexpected utility that its drafters probably did not consider it was the legal framework that allowed Spanish diplomatic missions, during World War II, to save many Jews from Nazi barbarism, by granting consular protection to those Sephardim who had obtained Spanish nationality under that Decree. The humanitarian spirit of these diplomats extended consular protection to non-naturalized Sephardim and, ultimately, to many other Jews.

The only list of Sephardic families protected by Spain is the one contained in Circular Order No. 2217 of February 11, 1949, of Sephardic families protected by Spain, published as a result of the provisions of the Decree-Law of December 29, 1948, BOE January 9, 1949, relating to the exchange of notes carried out between Spain and Egypt on January 16 and 17, 1935 and with Greece on April 7, 1936.

DATABASE

This database includes 144 separate households with a total of 507 Greek Jews that had received Spanish nationality. The language of the database is Spanish.

The fields in the database are:

• Household number
• Surname
• Given name
• Year of birth
• Comments

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

June 2025